The Celebrity Big Brother host discovered one of her ancestors was a would-be murderer

After initially being delighted to find out she had a ‘gentleman’ in her family in the shape of her five-times great great grandfather Richard Fowler, Emma’s emotions soon changed when she heard more about him.

Sitting alongside a local historian, Emma read about an incident in a newspaper from 1797 where her ancestor and another man went to a house, broke open the door and got a father and son out of their beds.

Reading aloud from a newspaper article, Emma said: “On the very instant they appeared they were knocked down and received many desperate stabs”.

The star’s mouth dropped open in shock before she looked up at her companion, shock etched on her face.

Emma then read on, discovering that the two men stabbed the father and son again at the guard house before torturing the son.

Clutching her hand to her neck and taking a deep breath, she said: “That’s horrific. Surely they can’t or wouldn’t have reported it if it were not true?”

The historian then confirmed it probably was true, and that the case went to court and Richard was charged, but somewhat miraculously, the father and son weren’t killed that night, sparing him a charge of murder.

Emma said: “It’s hard to think he’s a good man but there’s so much going on it’s hard to make sense of it.”

“It was so the polar opposite to what I expected and I was speechless to be honest.
“I come from – from what I know of – good people and I feel like I’ve found somebody who maybe wasn’t so good in Richard Fowler.”